The more eagle-eyed among you will have realized that this print collection has actually been available for a few weeks now, but here is the official announcement for the website.

Galaxion Book One: The Jump is now available to be ordered from our new store! This book collects the first three chapters of the webcomic,, the 15 page “Pathfinder” interlude, the “Fusella vs. Interplanetary Patrol” short story, and some between-chapter pin-ups and a bonus page that are exclusive to the print edition. Johanna Draper Carlson of Comics Worth Reading recently gave the book a lovely review!

If you order the book directly from us you will get a signed copy. My good friend and Galaxion co-creator Wendy Linkous has graciously taken on the job of shipping these books for me, which means we can offer reasonable shipping rates instead of the arm-and-a-leg it would cost to mail these out from Canada. The downside is that, normally, I won’t be able to do the sort of dedication and quick sketch that I put on copies that I sell at conventions. But! I get down to the States a couple times a year, and during those times I’ll be able to offer those extra trimmings on the books. I’m planning a trip at the end of June, so if you want to place an order before then I can personalize your copy!

The store link can be found in the menu bar just underneath the banner at the top of the page.

I am also keen on getting the book into comic shops for those readers who don’t follow a lot of webcomics! I don’t have access to the old Diamond Comics system of distribution anymore, so I’m doing it the hard way—store by store. So far Galaxion Book One: The Jump is available at The Beguiling in Toronto, ON, and also Dewey’s Comic City in Madison, NJ. Want to see Galaxion in your favourite comic shop? If you know of a great comic store (or bookstore!) that you think ought to be carrying Galaxion, please send me an email with the contact information and I will send them some copies! The store name, email address or phone number, and the name of the store manager would be perfect, but if all you know is the store name and address I’ll be happy to work with that.

My book is out at last! Actually, it was probably out months ago, but I only just got my copies. Here it is, my very first not-self-published book (yaaaay! *waves arms like Kermit the frog*)

Roberta’s Space Adventure is part of the Grade 6 space book club unit Mission: Space in the Moving Up with Literacy Place program by Scholastic Education Canada. Comics in the classroom—isn’t that awesome? There are, I think, eight comic stories in total in the unit, all done by different artists. In the ongoing struggle to get kids reading, this is going to be a pretty good tool!

Roberta’s Space Adventure is a fictional story set sometime in the nebulous future (where I like to set all my stories!), but the purpose of it is to teach the reader about the Canadian astronauts. The two main characters, who live on a large Canadian spaceship (because of course we have one, in the future), learn about their early space-pioneering ancestors. The more they learn, the more they appreciate how amazing those first Canadians to go into space—people like Marc Garneau, Roberta Bondar, and Chris Hadfield– really were.

The story is 40 pages long, and there is additional biographical information on the astronauts in the back. I did the pitch, script, script rewrites, art, and colouring (but not the word balloons or the title design) all within the space of about 5 months, which for me is insanely fast—especially considering the weeks of downtime where I was waiting for editorial approval before I could go on to the next step. It was both hideous and wonderful, and I hated and relished every minute of it.

Unfortunately, the book is only available to schools and similar educational groups (meaning I can’t sell you one). So if you’re an elementary teacher or if you know one, you may be in luck! Oh, and I guess you probably have to be in Canada, too… though if you represent a school in another country and have a burning desire to teach your kids about the Canadian Astronauts, I suppose Scholastic won’t say no to you! If you are in Canada… please spread the word!

A few months back a bunch of you all pitched in to help me figure out some FTL issues, and this time I’m asking for your scientific expertise on a subject a little closer to home. Er, sort of. I don’t think this is going to be too spoilerific, but if you’re concerned you can stop reading here!

In a nutshell, I’m trying to figure out exactly what the Galaxion can know about the planet below from up in orbit. From a plot point of view, there are things they can know and things they can’t. Or at least, temporarily can’t know. I’m not even thinking about fantastic new technologies here, I suspect even with our present level of tech they could learn quite a lot. Telescopic lenses are the most straightforward way of seeing what’s happening on the surface—that’s how Google Maps works, seeing stuff from satellites in orbit, and I believe the level of detail could be a lot higher. I can probably guess at the sort of limitations of a regular lens—the line of sight will be blocked by physical obstructions and will also be poor on a cloudy day.

Infrared sensors are another method of gathering surface data, but one I don’t grok quite as well. I understand with infrared imaging you can see stuff outside the range of human vision, such as the radiation from heat sources. I know astronomers use infrared telescopes to learn things about faraway stars, so using it to learn stuff about a planet you’re orbiting should be easy stuff. Movies and TV frequently show characters using some sort of thermal camera to clearly see people hidden in a building or behind a wall. How accurate is that? Can it be done from orbit, through the interference of the atmosphere? Could Fusella, on the Galaxion, be able to accurately track the positions of the Survey Contact Team? How about if they went inside a building? Or the Hiawatha? How much could clouds and other weather events mess up their ability to gather data? How about metal? Or rock?

I’m sure there are other methods of gathering data that haven’t even occurred to me. Some will likely not be important at all to the plot, but would be nice to at least think about. If you have any suggestions for me, I would be most grateful!